LETTERS

— Care problem simple

The problem with health care is very simple. When you have no competition, you can name your price, and it's been going on for years.

SCOTT BRIGHT Prescott Queasy over politics

I wrote recently to a friend that I am sick of politics. What good is one vote when public opinion can be bought by the highest bidder? What American, especially a Christian, would want to turn his back on children, the elderly or the sick?

The paid advertising says that if you do not, then you are a socialist and we will have to raise taxes. The national media are preoccupied with Michael Jackson, a governor's Argentine arm candy, torture and Sarah Palin's grandson's daddy. These stories are more interesting than the war that we are fighting on two fronts or our national health crisis.

I suspect that we will continue what we have done for the last nine years and borrow more money from China to fill our treasury instead of asking citizens to pay for such ventures. In Little Rock, we pay several people from out of state exorbitantsalaries to run our lottery when qualified Arkansans are out of work and suffering from this recession.

Lines have been drawn in the sand in the Middle East, and even deeper lines have been drawn at home. Why not dispense with party politics or the special interests of big insurance and start spending our borrowed money at home to make Americans stronger, healthier, better educated and energy independent? Maybe then when the bill is due our children will be able to pay it.

LISE FRULIO Bentonville Issue is a no-brainer

In his recent letter, Albert Campbell urged readers to join with him in raising their voices to make sure Congress does not pass a health reform bill that funds abortion. I couldn't disagree with him more.

It seems to me that if a woman cannot afford to pay for her health insurance or an abortion if she thinks she needs one, she sure as thunder can't afford to support a child. That woman needs help as much if not more than anyone else. This has to be a no-brainer.

JOHN G. VOWELL Little Rock Scrap the sculpture

Here we go again, folks. A $200,000 lipstick for that $400,000 pig in front of the federal courthouse in Little Rock. For a while there, I was hoping to read that scrap metal thieves had stolen that hunk of "art" and sold it to Sol Alman Scrap Metal to be cut up and melted down.

As I looked at the recent photo of it and the news story, I imagined 24 people standing shoulder to shoulder. I imagined them working for an entire year for a $25,000 salary each. That's a lot of productivity, people. Then I thought of the government taking those 24 people's yearly salaries and throwing the money away on a pile of scrap metal. It just blows my mind.

Then I realize that this sort of thing happens thousands of times a year around the country. What a waste of our money.

TIM W. PARCHMAN Little Rock Stop wasting money

I want the government to stop spending my money. I don't care if you are talking about the stimulus packages, Cash for Clunkers, the health care reform bill or now Cash for Appliances. Really, just stop.

This is my money that members of Congress are throwing after situations that do not belong in the hands of the federal government. They should stay out of the process.

The tax implications and the inflation that will be necessary because of all of this spending are going to be staggering, and look at what we are leaving to our children and grandchildren. What kind of inheritance are we laying by for them?

Those of us who work hard and act responsibly need to become a louder voice. We have elected this government, so we need to tell it to stop spending money and to stop enabling people, programs and businesses that don't exercise personal responsibility to continue to get by with bailouts. Congress should concentrate instead on the nation's infrastructure, how to get our military safely out of other countries and make our own borders more secure.

We need government of the people and for the people, all of the people. Not the lobbyists, not the vocal minority, not the special-interest groups; all of the people.

LEESA DAVIS Rogers A welcomed return

Thank you so very much for returning Brad Gitz's informative and thought-provoking weekly column to its rightful place in your Sunday paper. He is matched only by Paul Greenberg in offering the public extremely well-written political insights into the American polity.

I was appalled when Gitz was dispatched to your Saturday edition and assume that the flack you caught over that ill-conceived move caused you to see the light, as it were.

TIMOTHY F. WATSON SR. Newport Mistakes recognized

It's funny that letter writer Karl Hansen should mention Tony Alamo; his letter reads like one of Alamo's tracts.

Hansen has knowledge of "several hundred" Catholic priests guilty of child molestation who are walking around free? He must immediately provide the names and whereabouts of these hundreds of priests to the authorities so that they can be tried and punished. I don't think he'll be able to, as this is just a thinly disguised attempt to smear the 96 percent of ourgood, holy priests who never had any accusations made against them and the Catholic Church in general.

More than just the one priest were tried in court and jailed. As for his comment on homosexual behavior, reportedly 78 percent of the abuse victims were males between the ages of 11 and 17, a range that does not meet the American Psychiatric Association's clinical definition of pedophilia. This shows the complexity of the problem: Abusers cannot be excluded or included based on a certain set of criteria; otherwise, they'd be easy to identify.

Were unbelievable errors made in handling these situations in the past? Yes. But the only way to bring any good at all out of these tragedies is to work to make sure that they don't continue to happen. There are few institutions that have done more than the Catholic Church to put programs and guidelines in place to protect the children in her care.

AMY HAWLEY North Little Rock More control sought

I am so pleased that I was asked to attend the "tea" party recently held at the state Capitol. What I observed were people with hand-made signs which reflected their concern abut government takeover of different entities, including banks and car companies, which will affect taxes, jobs and health care.

There were people present who had a copy of the health care bill and had actually read it. I do not get the impression that Congress wants to improve the health care system. Members just want more control, and the media are certainly working on their behalf. I hope enough people really realize what is happening before it is too late. Our elected officials do not represent us.

MONA ARNOLD Fairfield Bay

Editorial, Pages 19 on 09/26/2009

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